St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-27
MARY wEISCHER.

come around the building as | chose to, and l
always did the work around the warden's
office. This day heard q noise in the com
mittee room, opening off the warden's office,
and attempted to open the door for the pur
pose of seeing who was in there, but the door
was locked. Thinking something was wrong,
l went to the hall door and tried to
open it but that was also locked.
This seemed to me very strange and
1 went down cellar under the floor of the
committee room and listened. 1 hadn't been
there but minute when 1 heard noise as
II two people were struggling in the room
above. This startled me. l knew there
were two windows in the committee room
looking out on the prison yard, and having q
key in my pocket to the outside gate 1 un-
locked it and went into the yard. The inside
blinds of one of the windows were partly
closed but there was an open space between
them that would give me an opportunity to
get view of the interior of the room with
out being seen myself. Under the window
was cellar way, but got a plank, laid it
across the cellar way, set a barrel on it, and,
climbing on top of the barrel, looked into the
room. On the sofa on one side of the room,
and opposite the window, I saw
Mary Weischer, one of the fe-
male convictS, and a prison Off
cial in an improper act Mary's
clothing was scattered about the room on the
floor, and some Of it badly torn. Surprised
at what had seen l climbed down from the
barrel, and concluded that would keep my
eyes open after that. Mary Weischer was a
life convict, who was convicted for killing
her husband, and she was privileged char
acter- For several years she had worked at
the Warden's house, going over there in the
morning and returning to the penitentiary at
night understand that her sentence has been
commuted and she has only about two years
more to serve. 1t was told me that Fred
Hilker, convict who used to work on the
lawn and around the warden's house while
Mary Weischer was employed there, got too
intimate with her 100. As l said before,
what l had seen prompted me TO keep my
eyes open and did so.
One day a prison official sent TO the
wenan's department. for Emma Brown. Il
convict, and, suspecting something crooked.
L watched him. He took her into room
opening off the hall and locked the, door. !
slipped through q window to a Balcony
running by two windows looking into this
room and peeped through the blinds. When
/ looked in l saw Emma standing against the
wall near the door, and the official had
one arm around her waist, with his
other hand he tore Emma's dress open and
took the most improper liberties with her
person. 1 think Emma saw me, for she
turned her face toward the window and a
minute later slapped the official in the face,
called him a fool and told him to let her
alone. They went out of the room after
Emma had fixed up her dress and she was
locked up again. 1t has been the pruc-
tlce for u long time before the change in ad-
ministraton, for one Of the officials to send
up for one of the female couvicts SUNDAY
when things were quiet around the prison
and remain locked up with her an hour or
more in the committee room. Everybody
who knew about it around the prison sus-
pected something wrong was going on. / tell
you, people may think that everything
is conducted o. K. around establishments
of this kind, but 'taint so. Several times
went into the committee room when nobody